El Nuevo Miembro
by WiseGoddess
Summary: The flock has a new member. Striking is amazing: she has wings!
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Specialities**

I watched the group of six. The girl was obviously the leader. She was about fourteen, a year older than me. A boy around the same age as the girl stood behind her glaring at me. They obviously thought I was a threat.

"What's your name?" asked a little-girl voice. A six-year-old stepped forward, with bright eyes and blonde hair.

"Is it any of your business?" I asked meanly. The girl frowned.

"It might be," she replied.

"Angel, honey," said the leader, "don't worry about it." I looked at her. "I'm Max," she said. "This is Fang," She indicated the boy behind her. 'Fang' had dark hair, and was quite handsome. "Iggy," A boy taller than Max stepped forward. He had empty eyes. I assumed he was blind. "The Gasman," An eight-year-old boy stepped forward. He glared at me, trying to be tough. I grinned. "Nudge," A dark girl smiled at me. "and Angel." The little girl who had asked my name smiled and waved.

"You're those bird kids," I said bluntly. "I read your blog, Fang." He looked at me curiously.

"Did you… help?" he asked.

"No. I was one of the ones they broke out," I said. The Gasman frowned.

"Huh?" he said. How intelligent.

"Look," I sighed, and unfurled my wings.

"Wow."

"Whoa!"

"Max, Max, look, she's like us!"

"What?!?!"

"So we're not the only ones…"

"Hey! What's happening?" That last one was Iggy, the blind one.

"She's… she's like us," said Max.

"In what way? A mutant freak?" Iggy sneered.

"Yup," I told him.

"Oh."

"Listen, my parents are after me," I told them quickly. "I really need to get away. Please, can I come with you guys? Just for a day or so?" Max looked at Fang. He looked at her.

"I s'pose so," said Max. "But how do we know you're not working for the Whitecoats?"

"Because here they are now," I said, turning around to face the group of scientists. "And they have guns." Before Max and the flock had time to wonder how I knew they were there, I had leapt into the air and charged towards the first Whitecoat, knocking her to the ground. Her head began to bleed and she didn't get back up. "Are you fighting," I yelled as I tackled another Whitecoat with a superb rugby tackle (except for the fact I was flying… maybe they should make 'Mutant Freak Rugby' – what a sport!), "or do I need to do this on my own?" Max and the others seemed to surge into action, and within ten minutes all the Whitecoats were out cold. Max slapped everyone a high-five, except me. She smiled, though.

"Why are you hiding from your parents?" she asked as the flock and I surged into the sky.

"Well, after I escaped from the Itex headquarters in New Zealand-" I began.

"In where?" the Gasman interrupted.

"New Zealand," I repeated. "It's a small country in the Southern Hemisphere. Anyway, I managed to track down my parents, and they were living in America. I found their house, and boom! They were trying to sell my life story to the press." All the other bird-kids looked at Iggy. "What?" I said.

"It's what happened to Iggy," said Max. "Well, pretty much, anyway."

"Oh," I said.

"How did you know the Whitecoats were there?" asked Angel.

"I have a thing that tells me if danger is close, and how close it is," I explained.

"Can you do anything else?" asked Nudge eagerly.

"Yup," I said. "I can fly!"

"Besides that," Nudge sighed.

"Errr…" I said thoughtfully. You know, those bird kids weren't so bad. "I can… oh, I can read minds…" Angel gasped a little bit. Fang rolled his eyes.

"Oh, really?" he said sarcastically. "Prove it."

"Alright," I said coolly.

_This is so bogus_, I heard Fang think.

"What'd he say?" asked Angel.

"He thinks that 'this is so bogus'," I replied. Fang looked stunned, and nodded.

"Wow!" the Gasman breathed.

"I can read minds too!" Angel said excitedly.

"Really?" I asked her. "Cool!" She nodded enthusiastically. Six-year-olds are so cute!

"What else?" asked Nudge.

"I can…" I thought. "I can breathe underwater and talk to water creatures." Everyone stared.

"You're kidding, right?" said Max.

"Nope," I answered.

"Are you and Angel related?" Iggy asked.

"Er… not that I know of…" I said.

"We don't look very similar," pointed out Angel. It was true. Angel had bright, sparkling eyes, and curly blonde hair. I had grey eyes that burned with a sort of anger. My hair was wavy and auburn.

"That's true," agreed the Gasman.

"Well, I wouldn't know…" said Iggy.

"No, you wouldn't," I said. Oops, that wasn't very sensitive…


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: My name is…**

After another hour or two of flying, we arrived at a cave.

"Here's good," said Max, and she began to make a fire.

"So…" said Iggy casually to me. "What _is_ your name?"

"It was 'Victoria' (that's what my parents named me before I was taken away), but in the Itex HQ in NZ, I was called 0089666 by the staff, and Striking by the other slaves."

"Slaves?" said Iggy, confused.

"We were forced to help package Itex products," I said, "for fourteen hours every day."

"Oh," said Iggy.

"Hey, Max," I said, trying not to remember my childhood, "I brought some meat to eat…" I opened my rucksack and pulled out some meat and a carving knife. "Here." Max thanked me and handed the meat to Fang to cut. He did, and soon we were all roasting pieces of chicken over the fire.

"Her name's Striking," said Iggy.

"Really?" asked Nudge.

"Yup," I said.

"But why?" asked the Gasman. "You're don't hit anyone… except for those Whitecoats. You smashed them!" I laughed.

"I don't know why they named me that," I told him. I was feeling more and more like part of the flock. Sigh. I'd have to leave soon.

"Hot-hot-hot-hot-hot-hot-hot!" shrieked Angel. She'd bitten into her chicken.

"Is it cooked?" asked Max concernedly. "Because it's really bad to eat uncooked chicken, you kn-" Fang silenced her with a kiss.

"Is he snogging her again?" asked Iggy.

"Yup," said Nudge.

"Thought so…" Angel looked at me curiously.

"Why do you have to leave, Striking?" she asked.

"I forgot you could read minds too…" I muttered. "No, I have to leave because I'm not part of the flock, am I?"

"You could be…" Angel said thoughtfully.

"You'd have to ask Max," I told her.

"Alright," she agreed cheerfully. "Max, can Striking stay?"

"Hmmm, ummm, mmmm," said Max. Then she pushed Fang away. "Fang, I gotta talk…" He looked a bit disappointed, but began to eat his chicken kebab.

"Can she?" asked Nudge eagerly.

"Well, if she wants…" replied Max a bit doubtfully, looking at Fang. "You know what happened last time we let someone join the flock…"

"But this time it isn't someone who's tried to murder us on numerous occasions," pointed out Iggy.

"Yeah!" agreed the Gasman. "Hey, Iggy, have you seen that bomb we made last week…?" Max nodded and looked at me.

"So, d'you wanna join the flock?" she asked. I grinned and nodded.

-----

"Okay, if you're gonna join, we've gotta get you a new look," Nudge told me the next morning. "We know this really good place in New York. And that's where we're headed, so we should go there, shouldn't we, Max?" Max nodded from where she sat, kissing Fang. "Yeah, told you," continued Nudge. I swear she hadn't talked this much last night. "So anyway, I think they should give you some earrings, 'cause that would look really good, right Angel?" Angel nodded. "Uh huh. What d'you think?"

"Yeah, sounds cool," I told the two girls.

"Max, can I go flying?" asked the Gasman.

"She's a little busy, haven't you noticed?" I said, grinning. The Gasman laughed a little.

"Max?" he repeated.

"I thought she'd have to surface for air after a while," I commented, "but maybe I was mistaken."

"Seriously, Max, Fang's always here, you don't have to keep snogging him 24/7," Nudge said loudly.

"It's not her fault," Angel said. "He's usually the one that grabs her and starts to-"

"Okay, okay, you don't have to discuss our kissing habits!" Max broke in, pushing Fang away gently.

"Then stop snogging every waking moment!" Nudge told her. "We should get going, shouldn't we?"

"Yup, I s'pose so…" agreed Max. "C'mon, Iggy… WHAT IS THAT?"

"Er… nothing…" Iggy said nervously.

"IT'S A BOMB!"

"Well, yes, and I'm quite proud of it!"

"Give it here!"

"What-"

"_Give it here_!"

"Okay, fine!" Iggy handed over the home-made bomb.

"Thank you," said Max. "Angel, sweetie, come on, get Total."

"Total?" I said in surprise. "Who's… oh, right, Total."

A black dog jumped into Angel's arms.

"I say that, as the most important member of this flock, we are perfectly outraged that you forgot my name!" said an arrogant voice.

"Oh! You talk," I said.

"And sometimes we wished he wouldn't," Fang muttered. Max laughed.

"It wasn't that funny, you know," the Gasman told her.

"She knows, but it was _Fang_ that said it, and everything _Fang_ says is hilarious, right Max?" Iggy said, grinning.

"No!" said Max, blushing.

"Shouldn't we get going?" pointed out Nudge, and Max nodded. She ran and threw herself off the edge of the cave. Her wings snapped open, and she started to soar. We all followed suit, Fang last. I flew beside Iggy.

"Did they really… you know, make you work for fourteen hours everyday?" he asked after ten minutes.

"Yup," I said.

"Oh…" Iggy fell silent for a while.

"Hey, Striking, look at this!" I heard Nudge call. Swooping in a wide arc, I saw Nudge do a loop-the-loop.

"Awesome!" I called. "Hold on… what's Max doing?" Max had sped up, shooting ahead of us. "Wow! She must be going about 200 km per hour!" I yelled.

"Yup!" Angel shouted. "That's her special talent!"

"Awesome!" I said loudly.

"Hey, guys, Fang is just _sooo_ good looking, and I _sooo_ wanna marry him!" said Max's voice.

"That's Gazzy's," said Fang stiffly. "He imitates people. Their voices, anyway." I laughed, and tried to push my hair away from my eyes. Ahead, Max had stopped to wait.

"Look," she said once we had drew level with her, "there's 'the big apple'." She pointed below, and I looked down and saw New York spread out below me like a toy village. Make that town. No, make that city. Actually, make that HUGE city, as far as the eye could see.

-----

After a quick lunch bought from street vendors, Max and the rest of the flock showed me the way to the beautician boutique. Ha, that sounds cool – 'Beautician Boutique'. Hello, welcome to Bella's Beautician Boutique! Today we have a couple of Mutant Freaks. Here they are now! So, Max, how are y-

"Striking?"

"What?"

"Here we are." Nudge was pointing to a bustling boutique (oooooo, there's some more alliteration!).

"How will we get a makeover for me?" I asked nervously. I hated being in crowds.

"No prob," said Max. "Angel can be very… persuasive." I looked at Angel. She didn't look like she was going to point a gun at someone's head and demand they give me a free makeover. But whatever.

"I thought we had agreed not to use her… talent," Fang said. What was with all the creepy dot-dot-dots?

"But Striking really needs a makeover!" Angel pleaded.

"Are you doing Bambi eyes?" Fang asked, looking away quickly.

"No," Angel lied. He turned to look at her and winced.

"Fine," he muttered. "Use the mind thing."

"Goody!" squealed Angel. She walked into the boutique, the rest of the flock following. She strode right up to one of the stylists and looked at her. The stylist's eyes glazed over, and then she took my arm and showed me to a seat. Then the pulling and prodding, makeup doing and hair-spraying began. (JAWS theme music)

-----

"Wow." That was Nudge.

"You look awesome!" That was Angel.

"Nice!" That was Max.

"…" Of course, Fang was silent.

"You look really pretty… I mean… er…" That was the Gasman.

"Huh? What does she look like?" That was Iggy.

My wavy hair had been straigtened and layered. My stylist had streaked it, as well, so I had gold-ish red highlights. They had really gone to town with makeup. I had black eyeliner and mascara, and my eyelids had been dusted with a green sparkly eyeshadow. My lips had been glossed and I had a little bit of foundation on. I looked H-O-T! MWAHAHA! BEAT THAT, ANNOYING ADVERTISMENT PEOPLE! Ah, but I haven't got to clothes yet! I was going to be put in the most gorgeous dress in the universe. It was SOOOO pretty! But then FANG pointed out that a dress wouldn't be too good for flying (luckily the stylist was, like, hypnotised so it didn't matter). So I had to stick with jeans. Don't get me wrong, those jeans were lovely. But that dress! It was soooooooo nice, and prettyful. That's my new word. Prettyful. I like it. My other one is 'confuzzling'. Anyway, back to the clothes.

I had these awesome jeans on. They were dark grey, and there were little buttons and jewels stitched onto the front pocket. My top was gorgeous. I wore a plain, white, slightly see-through top underneath. And on top I wore a green, loose, low-necked one. Okay, it was hard to describe, but it was GORGEOUS! Better than the dress, even. And I got my ears pierced. Now I have little green studs. I wore a matching green choker and bracelet. I looked PRETTYFUL!


End file.
